Sunday, 16 June 2013

Tomb Raider

The new Tomb Raider game goes back in time to tell the story of how Lara Craft became the adventurer we know her as today. You start off in the classic scenario where you get stuck on an island with no weapons and few skills, and then as you go you get more options and can upgrade your gear. You get some of the usual game weapons, and the bow, which is by far my favourite. Not only because it is different, but also because it allows you to set fire to the arrows (and that is useful).

The enemies are mostly as enemies usually are in this type of game, behaving the same way from fight to fight and repeating the same phrase as each other quite often. From time to time combat has also has a few quick-time elements, where one has to press the right buttons that show up on screen. These events are pretty basic and most of the time it is the same button that is used.

The game was a slow-starter for me. It took me a quite a while into the game before I discovered that I had gotten a bit more immersed into the story and scenery. After that I really enjoyed it though. The side-characters to me felt a bit shallow from time to time, and a bit stereotypical. It happened a couple of times that a character would be emotional about something, after which he/she suddenly just changes his/her opinion without a good reason just because of a trivial comment from another character.

Advancing in the game world is pretty linear, without many possibilities to explore off the path. There are some optional tombs that add a bit of problem-solving to the game though. They take the form of using different mechanics to try to reach a treasure. These are pretty fun breaks from the normal gameplay, but do not bring anything more to the actual game.

All in all I liked the game, despite it not being a totally unique game. It still had a good feel to it and some bits and pieces here and there that differentiated it from other similar games.